Upwelling, offshore transport, and the availability of rockfish in central California

• Main Authors: Ainley, David G., Sydeman, William J., Parrish, Richard H.
• Format: Other/Unknown Material
• Language: English
• Published: 1991
• Subjects: Ecology; Fisheries; Oceanography; PACLIM; Common Murre; Uria aalge; uria
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1834/31433

EXTRACT (SEE PDF FOR FULL ABSTRACT):We used the diet of a seabird, the common murre (Uria aalge), nesting on Southeast Farallon Island and feeding in the Gulf of the Farallones, California, as an index to abundance of juvenile rockfish, then related fish abundance to indices of turbulence and upwelling over an 18-year period, 1973-1990. Strong, persistent upwelling or downwelling led to reduced availability of fish in the study area, in contrast to great abundance when upwelling was mild or pulsed. . On the basis of our study, one effect might be that fishes thought strong enough to resist Ekman transport could be transported out of normal areas of recruitment.